A new study has suggested that investing in high-speed rail can bring various benefits, but should not be marketed as a major part of efforts to combat climate change. The study, 'The Future of Interurban Passenger Transport' by the Swedish transport economist Per Kågeson, calculates the effect on emissions from building a new high speed line connecting two major cities 500 kilometres apart. It says there is no reason to prohibit investment in high-speed rail on environmental grounds as long as the carbon gains outweigh the emissions during construction, but the greenhouse gas savings are sufficiently small that it would be wrong to justify such investment as a solution to climate change.

The European Court of Justice has confirmed a decision made earlier this year that urban road building schemes are covered by EU environmental impact assessment rules and cannot be exempted by splitting them into several smaller projects.

Work on the northern stretch of the M30 motorway around Madrid is being held up following an opinion from the European Court of Justice that says urban road schemes must be subjected to Environmental Impact Assessment.

Over a thousand protected nature areas in Europe are under serious threat from high-profile EU-funded transport infrastructure projects according to a new report by BirdLife International, RSPB and other environmental groups [1], which was presented in the European Parliament today.

On 13 May 2008 at the European Parliament in Brussels, T&E together with BirdLife International, CEE Bankwatch and EEB launched a groundbreaking report on unifying EU transport and nature conservation policy.